Great, Another Invasion!
by Umi Mikazuki
Summary: The Decepticons aren't the only aliens interested in Earth and its inhabitants.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or Animorphs.**

I think this is the first Ani/TF crossover that's ever been posted.

---

**Great, Another Invasion?!**

-_With the Allspark gone, we cannot return life to our planet. And fate has yielded its reward: a new world to call home. We live among its people now, hiding in plain sight, but watching over them in secret, waiting, protecting. I have witnessed their capacity for courage, and though we are worlds apart, like us, there's more to them than meets the eye. I am Optimus Prime, and I send this message to any surviving Autobots taking refuge among the stars: we are here, we are waiting_.-

One month. One month, in human measurements, since he had first sent out the message, and already three of his comrades had answered. With a mental sigh, Optimus transformed into his alt mode and headed back to the dam, his task of retransmitting done. With luck, more would come, and soon.

Yet he couldn't shake a sense of foreboding, as if they would be needed.

--

"I'm never going to figure out why you're obsessed with soap operas."

Shrugging his shoulders, a gesture he'd picked up from his time on Earth, Ax looked over at the Hispanic boy. (You never know what twist is going to occur.)

Marco rolled his eyes. "Like which of the married men on there that blonde's having an affair with, or who wants to steal her baby? Booooring."

Before the Andalite could retort, shrill, electronic sounds emitted from the laptop sitting in the corner of the scoop.

"…what the hell was that?"

(The Zero-Space transponder picked up a signal.) Ax moved over hurriedly to his lime green iMac, his fingers flying over the keyboard. (Definitely not human.)

"Well, duh. Obviously. Yeerk?"

All four eyes focused on Marco meaningfully as he turned up the volume on the speakers. (Not Yeerk, either.) He played the signal again. (It is originating from somewhere in Arizona; and, it is heavily encrypted.)

The human leaned in, putting his hand on Ax's shoulder. "Can you translate it?" They both stared at the strange characters displayed on the monitor. "It's like Chinese writing had wild sex with the Disney font, and this was the result."

The Andalite looked at him strangely. (Actually, it is closer in appearance to Japanese kanji.)

"Whatever. I can't tell the difference between it." Marco shrugged.

Already working on the signal, Ax turned one stalk eye to look straight at him. (I've never seen anything quite like this.)

"Should I grab everyone?"

(Not tonight. It is getting late, and I wish to gather more clues.)

"Gotcha. I'll fly by the school tomorrow and tell them to stop by after class."

(Hopefully, that should give me enough time to at least trace it.) Ax frowned.

--

The next afternoon, the group was gathered in the small scoop. "So, what'd you pick up last night?"

(I am still not sure. You'll have to listen for yourselves.) He played the message, his head cocked slightly to one side in concentration. (I can almost pick out what sounds like words.)

Tobias ruffled his wings slightly. (You sure this isn't Yeerk?)

Slowly, Ax turned one stalk eye towards the hawk. (It is far too advanced for them. For Andalites, even.)

"Is Earth, like, the galaxy's biggest truck stop? Why do they all end up here?" Rachel frowned.

Jake cut in, "The question is, friend or foe? We won't even be able to guess until we get that translated."

(I have been trying all night, with no success; I only managed to trace it to the Hoover Dam shortly before you arrived. It is mechanical in nature.)

"Do you think…maybe it has something to do with what happened in Mission City?" Cassie asked. "We checked to see if it was Yeerk-related, but remember how we couldn't find _anything_? Not even video from someone's phone!"

The Andalite frowned. (There were firewalls that even I couldn't get around.) He looked thoughtful. (It is a possibility.)

Marco crossed his arms. "Great, another invasion. Just what we need."

"They said it was military weapons gone haywire, possibly sabotaged by terrorists. Why would the government hide the truth?" wondered Cassie.

Tobias responded quietly, (Because the human race as a whole just isn't ready to deal with the fact that aliens are here, and have _been_ here for years.)

"We need to find out who covered this up, why, and if they're controllers or in danger of becoming controllers," Jake said. "And, I think we need to pay a visit to Erek. Being an android, he might be able to help some in translating it."

(I will need to bring my computer,) Ax pointed out. (I believe there is a bus stopping close by in approximately ten minutes.)

Rachel smiled. "I'll ride the bus with him while you guys go something small and make sure he doesn't freak people out_ too_ badly."

(I am perfectly capable of acting like a normal human!)

"Uh huh. Last I checked, normal humans didn't stutter on purpose," Marco commented dryly. Grinning at the glare he received from the Andalite, he added, "What? It's true, Ax-man."

"Alright children, stop bickering. Roach should work for hitching a ride. If you're morphing, morph, and let's go."

--

(I already told Erek we're coming, so play along with whatever he says just in case.)

Rachel patted her pocket lightly, knowing the others currently stuffed in it as cockroaches would feel it, and knocked on the door. A young man opened the door and smiled. "Hey, Rachel! Glad you could come over. You needed some help with math homework, right?"

"Yeah, the quadratic equation is killing me. Thanks for letting me drag Phillip along; I didn't want to leave him by himself while he's visiting."

"Oh, no problem. Come on in."

As soon as the door shut behind them, Erek's smile faded. "What's up?"

(Does that TV ever go off?) Marco wondered, halfway morphed.

"Marco? Shut. Up. Ax picked up a weird message on his Z-space transponder that we think you should hear, Erek." The blonde nudged the freshly demorphed Ax in the side. "Can we sit in the living room for this?"

"Sure."

Tobias perched on the back of the couch, fierce hawk eyes on the TV. (Hey, Ghosthunters!)

(I am recording it for you back at the scoop, Tobias,) the Andalite said as he opened the laptop on the coffee table.

(Awesome.)

Jake hid a grin and sighed. "Can we please get back on topic? Ax?"

(This came in late yesterday evening.) He hit the Enter button and straightened as the message played. The Chee's brow furrowed as he listened.

"You got any ideas?" Marco asked.

The android hesitated before answering. "I have a suspicion. Play that message again, please?" Ax did so, his main eyes hopeful.

Erek had a thoughtful look on his face. "The Pemalites once helped a crashed ship, many millennia ago, when we were first created. We have very little information on them; they seemed friendly, but insistent on going on their way. We did get one recording, though."

His hologram dropped to show his true dog-like form, and a beam of light emitted from his chest to the one blank wall in the room, expanding to form a screen of sorts.

"This is from the Chee that witnessed the crash."

They watched as the scene opened on a smoking crater, then focused on a large form moving away from it. "Whoa…giant robot?" Marco's eyes widened.

"Didn't the tabloids say something about killer robots?" Rachel quirked an eyebrow.

Erek looked at her. "Now, listen to this." High-pitched, electronic shrieks and whistles sounded from the creature, and the light went out, the wall blank again. "Sound familiar?"

Ax narrowed his eyes in thought. (Exactly like the message.)

"We never were able to translate it; it's beyond even us. They figured out our language in minutes, though."

"So." Cassie rested her hands on her knees. "What do we do?"

Marco spoke up, "I suggest some reconnaissance. We don't know anything about them."

(Agreed. The Hoover Dam is fairly close; on the Arizona/Nevada border,) the Andalite supplied. (We could easily sneak onboard a flight to Las Vegas to cut the travel time. It is about thirty miles from the city.)

"Flies again, if we do. We'll have to watch ourselves, though." Jake grimaced. "I was too close to being swatted last time."

Marco ran his hand through his hair. "So, when do we go?"

Jake nodded. "We should go tomorrow if we can, right after school. I didn't have anything major planned for the weekend, anyways. Any objections?" Seeing none, he continued, "While we're in class, Marco, check for the soonest flight. As soon as you find one, fly by and let us know. Ax, memorize the directions from Vegas to the Dam, please."

"All right! Vegas!" the Hispanic boy cheered.

(Yes, Prince Jake.)

"Don't call me Prince."

--

"Ratchet!"

The lime green mech looked towards the doorway. "Ironhide. Needed a break from the Captain's sparkling?

"The thing won't shut up! It cries in the middle of the night and lubricates everywhere. Primus, are all human sparklings like that?" the weapons specialist groused. "Really, I came because my cannons are glitching. I tried to fix it myself, but no luck."

Ratchet nodded. "I'll be able to get to them tomorrow. I want to…to finish preparing Jazz's body, and Optimus and I have a meeting with the Secretary of Defense in the morning." He turned his optics to the dented, but nearly fixed silver chassis lying on the table beside him. The black mech followed his gaze and balled his hands into fists at the memories flashing through his CPU. "You look tired. Maybe you should go recharge?"

Ironhide unclenched his fists. "Yeah, I think I will. There's not much else for me to do here." He turned around. "I'll be in the old Cube chamber if you need me." Being careful to not step on any of the human scientists in the hallways below the Hoover Dam, he made his way to the spacious room. Finding a spot partially out of view, he sat on the floor and let his systems shut down.

--

(Maybe owl wasn't such a good idea.) Tobias tried to focus on the rapidly darkening horizon. (Daylight they can handle easily, but strobe lights? I'm practically deaf, too!)

(Just be glad we're not going over the Strip itself,) Jake agreed.

Ax berated himself mentally. (I did not realize it would be so overwhelming on our morphs. It is the only way I memorized.)

The bright lights and blaring music gradually faded, much to their relief, as they headed east into the desert; however, a new problem presented itself upon reaching the Dam. Circling above, the only entrance they could see with any activity was at the bottom of a several hundred foot drop.

(Um,) Cassie pointed out. (How are we going to fly down there and demorph without getting spotted? It's lit up like the fourth of July!)

(Hmm. Guess we'll have to demorph here.)

--

Six flies buzzed into the Dam.

(Sure are a lot of military around here,) Tobias commented.

(Ax, how much time left? It took us longer than expected to haul fly abdomen in this place,) Jake asked.

(Twenty of your minutes.)

(How many times do I have to tell you, Ax-man? You're on Earth, they're _your_ minutes too!) Marco groused.

The Andalite sounded amused. (Now, nineteen of your minutes.)

(GAH!)

They flew down a long hallway, finally ending up in a very large room full of machinery. (I don't see anyone in here. We can demorph behind those steel beams over there. Let's do this quickly.)

Six flies changed into four humans, a hawk and an Andalite in a matter of minutes. Marco stretched his arms, paused, and whispered, "You guys get the feeling we're not alone in here?"

The high-pitched whine of a weapon charging echoed through the room. Slowly, they turned around to see a massive cannon glowing brightly only inches from their faces. The cannon was attached to a very annoyed looking black robot, easily over twenty feet tall.

"Who the _slag_ are you?"


End file.
